you, me and a cup of tea

Guys, I’m trying.

Really hard.

Giving it my best effort.

Tea.

One of the first things Dr. F said I had to eliminate from my diet is coffee.  I wish I were kidding.

“But I only have one little cup of decaf a day.  That’s not bad, right?”

Whine, whine, whine….but, but….trying to force actual tears….

He said it doesn’t matter whether it’s caffeinated or decaf.  Coffee is OUT.  He explained why it’s so bad for the brain and the gut lining.  Not only is it a no-no on the AIP (AutoImmune Protocol, i.e. gut healing diet), but my own individual food sensitivity test showed coffee as rather highly reactive for me.  On a scale of 1-3 on the test, coffee showed up as a 2.

I.  LOVE.  COFFEE.

This is hard.  Just smelling it drives me crazy.  Like, Tasmanian devil crazy.  GIMME GIMME GIMME!  JUST A SIP, JUST A GULP, JUST A CUP!  I NEED A CUP OF COFFEEEE!!!!

And as much as I adore coffee, I hate tea.  Detest it.  The mere thought of it makes me want to gag.  It’s too watery, has too weak of a flavor, and that tea taste itself is nasty.  BLECH.

Like I said, though, I’m trying.

This is cute, ’cause books.  I have been getting into books more lately.  I go through phases where I read like crazy and then ones where I totally don’t feel like reading.  Currently I’m entering a read like crazy phase.  Loving Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist.   OOOH – and there’s a great one on order that should arrive in the next few days:  Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst.  Online Bible study with Proverbs 31 starts soon!

Friends have been telling me that loose leaf, high quality tea is the way to go.  “Not all teas are created equal,” they say.  “You’ll find one that you love.”

I.

DOUBT IT.

Google says that you can use a French press to brew loose leaf tea.  You can also use little doohickeys called tea spoon infusers.  Starbucks is a one-minute drive from our house.  Any place that might have tea spoon infusers is at least a fifteen-minute drive.  So I went to Starbucks and got me a French press.  The infuser will come eventually.

Dr. I recommended a specific kind of loose leaf tea – caramel cream.  Not even gonna try to pronounce the brand.  Teagschwendner.  And yes, it’s as expensive as that wonky word makes it sound.  I ordered some.  It arrived two days ago.

I ripped open the box like a rabid wolf, whipped out the French press, set the teapot to boil and made some tea.  It smelled like a creamy caramel dream.

Added a little almond milk and tasted it.  It smells better than it tastes but I drank a whole cup.

I drank a whole cup of tea.

You don’t even understand how earth shattering that is, do you?  Considering EVERY time I take the first sip of a different kind of tea I spit it dramatically back into the cup, it is earth shattering.

Then I even poured myself a little more.  I actually enjoyed it.  It does taste caramel-y.  I won’t be drinking it or ordering it often because we’d rather not sell our firstborn, but it’s nice to have around for enjoying once in awhile.  And it makes me want to explore the world of loose-leaf teas a bit more.  What other flavors are out there?  Don’t ever try to get me to drink fruity tea or flowery tea.  But caramel or cinnamon or pumpkin spice…flavors like that might just get me to invest in a tea spoon infuser.  Doohickey.  Or whatever it’s called.